May 16- May 20

This week I worked Monday, 8-12, Thursday 8-12 and Friday, 8-5.  My total for the quarter is 99 hours.  Monday was pretty quiet because most of the staffers were on location in Texas, leaving Henry and Barbara as the only team in the studio.  I helped bring out and put away merchandise/props, ripped a set that Gordon used last week, and helped Henry and Barbara set up.  The most exciting this was that Henry asked me to light a clothing set that he was going to use next.  I used 2 lights plus 2 reflectors.  I drew a diagram and included a picture of it below:



 



Where I placed all the lights

 

The shot with my lighting set up



Thursday, I ripped the bed set that Barbara and Toby shot last week and I tested some steamers for Barbara.  Pretty simple work, although the biggest challenge, I would have to say, was figuring out how to set the steamer water bottles in without spilling the water all over the place.  They are something like a water cooler where you have to carefully pour the water into the hole until the whole thing sits in the hole upside down.

Friday, I ripped a couple sets, helped Miyuko and Jennifer set up their set, and moved some merchandise back to it's area. One of those pieces was this really cool bench made of Alpaca hair.  Everyone that passed it had to stop and pet it.  

Behold the Yeti Chair!

During the second half of the day, I sat with Eric, a photographer I had never worked with before.  He's been there for years and actually had gone to school with Henry, Rick and Laura in Daytona Beach, Fl.  He is very skilled at what he does.  He shared with me that he prefers to use "subtractive lighting".  This means that he starts off with even lighting (he explains it as light from the sun will meter the same in all places) then he subtracts light from that in different areas until he get the lighting he likes.  I thought this was very interesting because most photographers add light to the subject until it looks right.  He also shared that he places lights as far away as necessary to make all the lights even.  Once it is time to shoot, he will sometimes fire a single light several times to get the exposure he wants, instead of moving the light closer.

Eric was shooting sparkly things so he created this tent environment for it.